SECRETARY of State John F. Kerry wrangled for hours with senior Russian officials in Moscow on Friday, discussing a plan that includes first-time coordination between the US and Russia on air strikes targeting militant groups operating in Syria.
The fraught effort comes as the Obama administration becomes increasingly exasperated with the failure of Russia to cooperate in the broader goals of ending the war in Syria, getting rid of President Bashar al-Assad and stopping gains by the Islamic State (IS) and its allies. In fact, Russia’s actions have largely shored up Assad and given him an upper hand in the fight, while continuing deadly attacks on civilians.
US officials have made clear that what they view as the Russia-backed Syrian regime’s repeated violations of a partial cease-fire, which Kerry helped negotiate earlier this year, are undermining all diplomatic efforts.
But entering into closer military action with Russia poses a host of risks that have alarmed Syria watchers inside and outside of the administration. Instead of easing violence against civilians, which Kerry has said he hopes to achieve, it could have the reverse effect of unleashing even deadlier attacks.
“We have some homework to do, but there is a possibility…of actually making some further progress,” Kerry said on Friday during a break between meetings. “We still have some gaps, and my hope is that, in the course of this conversation and work, right now we can close those gaps and find a positive way forward.”
Earlier, a State Department official indicated that there was tough going in the talks, which started on Thursday night, when Kerry met President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. Kerry complained to Putin about “repeated violations” of the so-called cessation of hostilities and emphasized “that absent concrete, near-term steps, diplomatic efforts could not continue indefinitely,” Department Spokesman John Kirby said.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov also cast a negative light on the discussions so far, saying “genuine cooperation” had not yet started, according to the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti. He described a “fairly constructive, frank and detailed” dialogue, adding that “many issues remain, to do with actual cooperation in the course of implementation of the operations in Syria.”
Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, meanwhile, did agree on one thing: Thursday night’s massacre in Nice, France, underscored the urgency in fighting extremists in Syria.
“I think people all over the world are looking to us and waiting for us to find a faster and more tangible way [to show] that everything possible is being done to end this terrorist scourge and to unite the world in the most comprehensive efforts possible to fight back against their nihilistic and depraved approach to life and death,” Kerry said.
Kerry is proposing the US share intelligence and targeting data with Russia and coordinate bombing missions against the Islamic State and the Nusra Front jihadist forces operating in Syria.
US and Russian air forces would maintain their separate headquarters but would share a joint command center in Amman, Jordan. Currently, the two nations coordinate air operations only to maintain the safety of each other’s aircraft, not in terms of targeting or intelligence on locations of rebel positions.
Nusra is the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, but many of its forces fight against Assad alongside other rebel groups that the US supports. Despite the partial cease-fire in effect since February, Russia and the Syrian regime have made no distinction, bombing all the groups as “terrorists.”
The fear is that, if the US begins coordinating bombing runs with the Russians, Americans could be drawn into attacks on the very groups it supports. Kerry and other administration officials have insisted that Moscow would be made to pledge not to hit those groups, but others doubt Putin would keep his word.
“We’ve always made clear that we would welcome…a military contribution from Russia, as long as they were focused on ISIL [Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant] and al-Qaeda’s presence in Syria,” White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen them devote too much of their attention to using their military might to prop up the Assad regime.”